Sullivan Expedition

The Sullivan Expedition was a 1779 military campaign that was undertaken by the Continental Army general John Sullivan against the Iroquois tribe of New York. The Americans destroyed 40 Iroquois villages, their fields, and their orchards, and they ensured that the fields could no longer produce food for the Native Americans. Thousands of Indians were forced to flee to Canada, and many starved or froze to death.

Following the Wyoming Massacre and the Cherry Valley massacre, the American commander-in-chief George Washington ordered John Sullivan to take command of 4,000 troops and destroy the Iroquois homeland. There were only two battles during the campaign: on 13 August, at Chemung, and on 29 August 1779, at Newtown. At Chemung, the Indians ambushed Edward Hand's force, killing 6 and wounding 9. At Newtown, the Americans were victorious, defeating the Iroquois and British forces, who just narrowly escaped from encirclement. On 13 September 1779, a scout group of the expedition was massacred in the "Boyd and Parker ambush", with only 8 men from a 24-man patrol escaping and surviving the Indian massacre.

Sullivan's army went on to destroy more than 40 Iroquois villages and stores of winter crops, breaking the power of the Iroquois. The Iroquois families migrated to Canada, seeking the protection of the British, and many Indians were forced to beg the British for food; many of them died from starvation or from freezing to death in the winter cold.